slurry

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English slori (“mud, slime”), also slory,^[2][3][4][5] probably from Middle English related to Middle English slore, thin or fluid mud, also sloor,^[6][7][4][8] which survived as the dialect noun slur, "thin mud".^[9][10][11] That noun is of obscure origin;^[7][9] Etymonline compares Continental words for muddy sloppiness such as Middle Low German sluren and Middle Dutch sloren (“to trail in mud”).^[7] The verb, Middle English slorien (“to dirty, smear”), is probably from the noun.^[6][4] Etymonline also notes Slori as a nickname about 1200, perhaps for a dirty or lazy person;^[7] the Middle English Dictionary takes that form as an adjective, probably from Middle Dutch from Middle Dutch slore (“dirty or indolent person”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Mud, slime: before 1438, in the Book of Margery Kempe, where she wishes that people would throw slory & slugge on her;^[2][6] the OED's first record is the Promptorium Parvulorum of about 1440.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The OED extends the old sense "thin sloppy mud or cement" to any fluid mixture of a powdered solid with a liquid, usually water.^[10] Barnhart dates the spelling slurry to 1825,^[6] the year of the OED's first technical use, in a book for mechanics.^[10] In the 20th century the word was applied to particular mixtures: water and fine coal dust from coal washing (1913), and liquid farm manure (1965).^[10][12] The verb, to dirty or smear, is recorded from about 1440 but is long obsolete except in dialect;^[10][12] the English Dialect Dictionary records it from Ireland and northern England to Somerset, with slurry over, to do a job hastily and badly, and the noun for thin watery mud or slush.^[13] A new verb, to make into a slurry, is dated by Merriam-Webster to 1947.^[4]

Timeline

• before 1438 – slory, mud, slime.^[2][6]
• c. 1440 – verb, to dirty, soil or smear.^[10][6]
• 1825 – a technical term for a fluid mixture of a fine solid and water; first record of the spelling slurry.^[10][6]
• 1913 – a mixture of water and fine particles of coal.^[10]
• 1947 – verb, to convert into a slurry.^[4]
• 1965 – liquid manure from farmyards.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A thin, watery mixture of an insoluble solid, such as mud, clay, cement or manure, in a liquid: The builders poured a slurry of lime into the trench.^[11][4][10]
2. A mixture of raw materials and water used in making portland cement by the wet process.^[4]
3. A mixture of water and fine coal particles left from coal washing, or such material dried and used as fuel.^[10][12]
4. Liquid manure from a farmyard.^[10][12]

Verb

1. To make a powder or concentrate into a slurry.^[4]
2. (archaic) To smear or soil.^[4][12][10]

Related words

• slur

Usage notes

A separate adjective slurry, blurred or indistinct, now usually of speech, is recorded from 1937 and is formed from the verb slur with the suffix -y.^[10][12]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)